Thanks for the quick reply Steve. I'm of course disappointed, but completely understand.

I guess I'm going to just have to come out for a Decfest soon. The rising response peak on the HDT's is wearing on me ( but damn, they do so much so well ), and I'd like to hear the new version and the ERR.

Hello Steve,sorry I took so long to get back to you. Life has been utterly crazy.

I'm referring to the natural peak in the driver response in the upper midrange. I have the old unit w/ the socket for a phaseplug. I had a chance to compare my HDT to a FE206 based bass relex loudspeaker owned by a friend, and the differences were quite dramatic. Even taking into account that the bass on the HDT was clearly superior in every aspect, and the response in the upper bass/lower midrange was much fuller, your modified unit was WAY smoother and more articulate everywhere else. Just no contest. But there is no getting around the fact that there is that little bit of glare that I hear in female voices and massed strings. I also listen to a lot of classic rock and the quitars can sizzle a bit.

Presently I have my SE84 amp in pieces, as after I put the IT's in there I could never get the hum level low enough ( around 10mv ). I think I just was trying to pack too much iron in too small a space, especially given my skill level. I'll rebuild it on a new larger chassis so I can get some space between all the iron. But in the meantime I put my old NAD3020A back to work, and we both know that SS and single fullrange drivers are generally not a good fit, especially after hearing what a good SET like yours can do. It really makes the HDT too bright, so I've got to get the SET back up to retstore a better frequency balance, but even that has a bright characteristic, but to a much lesser degree. So this is why I'm investigating either sending my drivers back for the new surround and, if possible, a new phaseplug, or just biting the bullet and getting the DFR8 drivers and upgrading the cabs to the alternate tuning. I think I recall reading that Zygi stated there just isn't any shout in the new drivers, so I'll probably end up going that route eventually.

As far as the other variables you mentioned, I've played with all kinds of cables, my room sucks ( house built in 1820 w/ very springy floors with half logs for joists ). I listen nearfield, ( 5 ft away ) and have no sidewalls near either speaker, so the room isn't really causing any of this.

Again, thanks for offering to help. After I get my amp back up and running, I'll give you a call and we'll get me headed in the right direction.

Bill - curious as to what suggestions SD had to say about your glare issue, but thought you could try Martin King's baffle step correction circuit. I found it made the fostex based speaker friendly to even my old Rotel 840bx integrated.http://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl?num=1271284631Matt

thanks for your thoughts on MK's correction circuit. That has been in the plans for some time now, just haven't gotten around to it.

However, now I'm on a different kick. I took another look at The Gizmo, and I'm pretty sure that Steve is using the EX mod transfo in there, of which I just happen to have a pr of lying around. I'm going to swap the Alps 100k pot in my ZSLA-1 Sig for a PEC pot ( hope to get that done this weekend ), and then I'll have all the parts to make a Gizmo. From what I've read about the good things it does to Lowthers, I have some high hopes it will work similar wonders on the HDT's. As soon as I get it done and played around with it, I'll report back what I hear.